


Those Whom You Call'd Fathers

by Kadorienne



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Paternal Conflict Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadorienne/pseuds/Kadorienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki reveals himself to his true father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Whom You Call'd Fathers

**Author's Note:**

> All of the dialogue in this fic was taken verbatim from [the script for the movie](http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Thor.html). They changed this scene before they filmed it and so in the movie Loki never revealed himself to Laufey.
> 
> Thank you to Grey Bard, Anne-Li and Andartha for betaing.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you," Laufey rasped the moment Loki stepped into the ruins of the temple. The very place, Odin had told him, where he had been left as an infant, to be found and claimed by a foreign king.

Loki forced himself to look calm. It was a skill he had honed over centuries of being taunted by Asgardian brutes. Like the wild dogs whose behavior they emulated, they could sense fear. There were at least three other Jotnar present - guards? Courtiers? - but Loki kept all of his attention on Laufey.

"I've come alone and unarmed." There was the smallest tremor in his voice. He drew a few slow breaths to steady it. He could not, _could not_ fail now. Out of all the moments of his life, right now he _must_ not appear weak.

What would it have been like, growing up here? In this dark and frozen land? After Asgard's bright sun and golden walls this realm seemed miserable indeed, but perhaps the ice and chill would have suited him better. He had never belonged among the boisterous, cheerful, brainless warriors of Asgard. Perhaps frost giants appreciated sorcery and guile more. Loki didn't know, he knew next to nothing of his own people.

Laufey looked down at him, contemptuous. Loki scrutinized his face, trying to find some trace of resemblance, but all he could see was blue skin and ridges. Would Laufey recognize him in his true form?

"To what end?" Laufey asked as if idly. As if the King of Asgard were not the most important person in the Nine Realms to him just now, with war brewing and revenge in the air.

Loki had prepared his words carefully. First, give a hint as to where his loyalties lay - or rather, where they didn't. "To make you another proposition."

Those unsettling ruby eyes widened a fraction, then narrowed with interest. "So you're the one who let us into Asgard."

Loki smiled faintly. "You're welcome."

"My men are dead, and I have no Casket. You are a deceiver."

This again? Loki lived in a sea of lies and yet it was always _his_ lies that were singled out, just because he came up with lies of his own instead of telling the same ones everyone else did. He was opening his mouth to spin more lies, to explain that their failure to retrieve the Casket wasn't his fault (he would think of something, he always did) when Laufey's hand lashed out, closing around his throat.

Loki flinched instinctively, but after a mere instant he controlled himself and stood his ground. This wasn't how he had pictured this moment, he had planned it out so carefully, but one thing a liesmith learned was how to change course as the winds decreed.

"You have no idea what I am," he told Laufey calmly as he felt the change creep over his skin.

Laufey and the guards stared at him. Loki wondered what his true form looked like. Was it much different from his usual self? Would the Jotnar see the resemblance to their king and know him?

Loki's heart pounded in his ears despite his outward calm. This had to go right, it _had_ to, this wretched uninhabitable realm had taken his father from him, it owed him another, it _owed_ him-

"Hello, Father," he said. And managed a grin.

Laufey stared. Released him, watched his skin turn back to normal. Made the connection. "Ah, the bastard son." 

Loki managed to keep his grin in place, but he hadn't even thought of his real mother. He had assumed it was Laufey's queen, but of course it wasn't, even a runt would not have been abandoned if it had been born right side of the blanket, if its blood was purely royal. Wasn't this grand, his blood was not only monstrous, but half _common._ If he had to be a monster, could he not at least be a prince of monsters?

Laufey stepped back and regarded him with scorn. "I thought Odin had killed you. That's what I would have done. He's as weak as you are."

Loki had thought it was just possible that he had not actually been left in the temple to die. Perhaps they had thought it was a safe place to leave an infant in the midst of fighting, perhaps some adult had just set him down for a moment and then been killed or forced to flee, _perhaps they hadn't been trying to kill him._

But of course that could not be, of course he had been discarded from the moment of his birth. But he could prove his worth, truly he could, give him half a chance and he would be a son who would make any father proud.

He wished this were not so familiar, this feeling of laying accomplishments at a father's feet, hoping for a pat on the head. His heart clenched behind his confident smile as he tweaked the words he had planned to suit what _his father_ had just said.

"No longer weak. I now rule Asgard, until Odin awakens." And Laufey was impressed, he saw the value of what Loki had attained, even Loki's stunted size had been useful. Laufey's long lost son had taken possession of the kingdom of his enemies, there was nothing more a father could ask. "Perhaps you should not have so carelessly abandoned me."

Laufey smiled now, slow and feral, and Loki returned it, baring his teeth. Yes, this was good, his father understood. Laufey could see that leaving his runt to die had been a mistake. He could see how his son had triumphed from the very jaws of death. Together they would-

"Or perhaps," Laufey said, pleased, "it was the wisest choice I've ever made. I will hear you."

Loki felt his face freeze for an instant, and then he covered it by turning a bit to pace as he made his new proposition, puckering his brow as if in thought.

He had known that he was going to kill one of his fathers. Now he knew which one.


End file.
